PFRG: Chapter 186

From a distance, one could feel the faint vibration coming from the ground.

This was undoubtedly a very familiar rhythm, but now they had already left the No 1 stronghold. Even at such a long distance, they still had this clear feeling. It was conceivable what a huge number of alien species the remaining teams were facing.

At this moment, no one had the time to pay attention to the situation of other teams.

In front of them, the team that was originally moving slowly stopped at the same moment that the countdown ended.

They stood in the wilderness like a statue, motionless.

Chi Ting and his companions looked over and could see faint cracks on the skin of these residents’ faces. They were like cracked tiles and layers of glass falling. The whites of their empty eyes had enlarged several times, leaving only a tiny black dot on the eyeball that stared strangely at the position straight ahead.

There was only a subtle peeling sound around them. The flakes on the face were scattered into thin dust in the occasional breeze, scattering on the ground with a rustling sound.

What Chi Ting was more concerned about at this moment was the countdown for the refresh.

Just like the previous time when the second wave of alien attacks was launched, the countdown for the third wave was directly updated.

The countdown starting from eight hours clearly referred to the launch time of the next fourth wave. A bit further down on the virtual panel, another new countdown appeared.

The two hour countdown, like the numbers above, kept jumping up and down like a striking red warning.

Apparently, everyone present had received the same countdown. The other members of the four teams were already moving towards this side.

However, before the assembly was completed, the rustling sounds around them suddenly became more intense.

They looked over after hearing the sound, and what caught everyone’s eyes were the resident NPCs who had completely lost their human skins.

After peeling off their skin, they seemed to have completely freed themselves from the shackles on them. They struggled to move closer to the players.

The originally stretched battle line gradually formed an encirclement, which was compressed towards the middle bit by bit.

No one expected that the residents, whom they were trying their best to protect and escort, would turn into such a horrible appearance in the blink of an eye. However, the players present were relatively calm. They saw that the NPCs’ movements were slow, so they reacted and completed the assembly one step ahead.

They entered a state of alert but didn’t rush to take action. Instead, they remained in an observation posture.

However, it was obvious that as long as these resident NPCs showed the slightest tendency to attack, the personal skills of these top players would be used on them without hesitation.

“Old Song.”

The moment Chi Ting finished speaking, a barrier was raised around them, tightly encircling the team members.

But anyone could see that such a barrier didn’t seem to be set up to protect the safety of these players. Instead, it seemed to be set up to prevent possible confrontations from causing harm to the NPCs.

This time, even Qiu Ji looked over in surprise. “Captain Chi, what do you mean?”

“I’m sorry for the offense.” Chi Ting didn’t evade such a question. He glanced at Hua Qianmei from the side and saw that she had understood his signal. She stood between the two teams without making a sound. Then he smiled slightly. “However, I really don’t want you to cause irreparable damage to these residents due to some misunderstanding.”

“Who will cause damage to whom?” The members of the Seven Seas team looked incredulous. “Open your eyes now. Shouldn’t we be worried that these monsters will attack us?”

Chi Ting slowly stated, “They aren’t monsters.”

A member of the Seven Seas team refuted, “It is like this. How can they not be…”

Chi Ting reiterated, “I said, they aren’t monsters.”

At such a sudden and cold tone entered his ears, the member of the Seven Seas team felt a chill seeping up from the soles of his feet, and he subconsciously fell silent.

The moment their eyes met, he felt an unprecedented sense of fear from the other person’s seemingly smiling eyes.

It wasn’t until someone touched his shoulder that he slowly came back to his senses and gritted his teeth. “They are like this. What else can they be except for monsters?”

Next to him, Lu Nanling said, “They just look like monsters. From the data I have, other than the changes in appearance, all other indicators of these residents are very stable, including the number of people.”

At this point, he paused slightly and prompted, “Also, everyone should still remember what the content of the side quest is.”

The member of the Seven Seas team was about to retort. Then he became slightly surprised when he heard the words, and finally realized what was going on.

Yes, the side quest was to let them escort these residents to complete a safe transfer. Now, this task prompt still existed. This meant that the essential content of their task hadn’t changed at all.

But if that was the case, what was going on with these NPCS?

The Seven Seas team was gradually convinced, while the Prisoner team remained under He Yuanqing’s control and didn’t express their stance. The remaining Jazz team remained in a state of watching the show.

Chi Ting took a quick look and saw that the situation at the scene had gradually returned to stability. He gave Song Xuefeng a look to signal him to pay attention to the situation at all times. Then he turned to look at Lou Yueren.

Lou Yueren immediately smiled knowingly. The shadows under everyone’s feet slowly rose up in response, forming a bunch of sharp blades hanging in the air that could fall at any time.

The executor of this operation just blinked nonchalantly. “Don’t worry, dear. As long as you don’t allow it, I will never let them do it.

He Yuanqing stood by with his arms crossed and didn’t express his opinion. At this moment, he caught a glimpse of the shadow blade above his head that was ready to fall at any time. Finally, he couldn’t help saying with contempt, “Why haven’t I seen you act so servile before?”

Lou Yueren smiled without any shame. “I have so many looks. Why should I show you all of them? Of course, I can only let my dear see them secretly.”

“……” He Yuanqing really felt like he had lost all his patience this time. He rubbed his temples and looked in Chi Ting’s direction.

In the blink of an eye, Chi Ting had walked up to the gradually approaching resident NPCS. At the same time, a figure could be seen walking out from among the NPCs.

His appearance had completely changed, but it wasn’t difficult to judge from his clothes that he was Conrad, who initially cooperated with them in the evacuation operation.

Chi Ting’s gaze was fixed on Conrad’s face, which had almost lost its human features, and his expression was as calm as ever.

Finally, after some silent waiting, he heard the other person speak.

“Dear support team members,” Conrad’s voice was as calm as his expression at this moment. It was as if he was just delivering an execution order that had nothing to do with him. “Unfortunately, a primary source of infection was found in our transfer team now. In order to ensure the safety of the residents, the guard team needs your help.”

Such words fell into the ears of the players who were paying attention to this side.

However, compared to the subtle expressions of the Dawn team, they obviously didn’t quite understand what the so-called ‘primary source of infection was’, let alone what type of help they could provide next.

The virtual panel that popped up next completely answered their doubts.

[Emergency mission: Find the source of the infection.]

Mission introduction: The existence of a primary infection source has been detected among the residents of Benisaf Fortress. The possible alienation reaction at any time makes everyone very uneasy. Once the residents carrying the primary infection source entered the new safe zone, it will mean that the alienation infection will spread among these ordinary residents. It is only by eliminating the hidden dangers in advance that the future safety of all personnel, including the players, be ensured.

Now, please complete the treatment of the source of infection before it enters the alienation stage and lead the remaining residents to a safe place.

Infection outbreak countdown: 1:52:33.

Mission reward: Residents’ favorability.

After reading the mission-related content, everyone quickly discovered that there was a page-turning button. This displayed the content of the next interface after touching it.

[Please note the following rules during the mission:

The number of primary infection sources is unknown. The alert status can only be lifted once all of them are eliminated. Please make careful judgments.
The alien infection is highly contagious. Any close contact without protection might cause infection. The infected humans might become new sources of infection. Both NPCs and players are at risk of infection.
After making a judgment, please complete the safe transfer as soon as possible. Once the countdown ends, the alienation infection will break out in full force. All personnel who haven’t entered the safe zone will be infected collectively.
Avoiding direct contact is the most effective way to avoid infection.
Be careful that the primary source of infection might evolve into an intermediate or even advanced source of infection. Any increase in the degree of alienation might not necessarily mean that the person is no longer human, but if the alienation is too high, the person will definitely become a monster!
Infection is dangerous! Infection is dangerous! Infection is dangerous!!!]

The last rule was written in bold, blood-red font. The eye-catching exclamation marks directly stimulated everyone’s attention.

Infection.

No one expected that such a setting would exist in the so-called tower defense instance.

He Yuanqing read all of the content at a glance. He immediately grasped the most critical point of the task issued this time. “This time, the rules don’t tell us the specific characteristics of the primary source of infection.”

The moment these words came out, the surroundings fell into an eerie silence.

This was enough for the players of the top teams to understand the purpose of the previous series of changes.

Looking around, apart from the outer clothing, all the resident NPCs had become exactly the same in appearance. They looked like replica puppets.

There was no distinction and no criteria for judgment.

Now, what they needed to do was to find the existence of the so-called primary source of infection in the absence of any evidence. Perhaps there was even more than one.

The jumping numbers indicated the time left for them.

A final judgment must be made before the countdown ended, otherwise, they would all…

A gust of wind passed by. In the silence, only one person could be heard laughing. “Isn’t this simple? Since we can’t judge, why not kill them all?”